Hsu Chih-hsin (許志新), an 81-year-old surgeon in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), has served 15 years beyond his retirement due to a lack of surgeons in the township.
After graduating from the National Defense Medical Center in 1965, Hsu went on to work at Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital and Kaohsiung Christian Hospital.
In 2003, at the age of 66, Hsu retired from his position as the vice superintendent of Taichung Veterans General Hospital’s Chiayi City branch and started working at Heng Chun Christian Hospital.
Photo copied by Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
He had been planning to retire, but he was inspired by a conversation he had with Heng Chun’s then-superintendent Chen Yun-chih (陳雲址) and decided to dedicate himself to the most rural part of southern Taiwan, Hsu said.
Chen told him about the lack of doctors in Hengchun Peninsula and that many patients were unable to find the right doctor or had to transfer to hospitals far away, Hsu said.
“I could not believe that there were still places in Taiwan where access to healthcare was difficult,” Hsu said.
Taking on the responsibility of filling the need for a surgeon on the peninsula, Hsu sees patients six days a week, working from 7am to 10pm at the hospital’s emergency department.
Hsu keeps a low profile, nurses at the hospital said, adding that he is able to recognize symptoms that others might not have noticed and provide immediate treatment.
Once, a patient in their 20s was diagnosed with pneumothorax and had difficulty breathing, and required immediate endotracheal intubation, they said.
Hsu was off-duty, but he returned to the hospital to insert an endotracheal tube, surprising many younger pulmonologists who had been unable to do so, the nurses added.
Although Hsu is in good health, there are only two doctors in the hospital’s surgical department, and the other doctor sees patients only on Tuesdays.
Hsu sometimes sees patients even when he is not feeling well, hospital staff said, adding that they hope he would get more rest.
However, Hsu insists on prioritizing patients’ needs before his own, they added.
He told hospital superintendent Chen Chih-cheng (陳志成) that he is getting old and hopes that younger doctors would take over his role, but until then, he will still stay at the hospital, Hsu said.
“Healthcare in the Hengchun Peninsula is ‘dark’ and every doctor here is like a lamp,” Hsu added.
Although he is old, as long as there is still a bit of light left inside of him, he is willing to continue to brighten up every corner, he said.
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